Apple has just announced the new, more powerful MacBook Pro models powered by the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips.
In previous editions of Apple Silicon, the Pro variant was essentially just two chips, while the Max was four. But for the M5 generation, Apple has combined two dies into a single chip …
From the M1 to the M4 chip lineup, the Pro variants gave you two of the base chips and the Max version gave you four. With the M5, Apple has used an advanced packaging method to combine pairs of the M5 into a single system on a chip.
The chips are built using a new Apple-designed Fusion Architecture. This innovative design combines two dies into a single system on a chip (SoC), which includes a powerful CPU, scalable GPU, Media Engine, unified memory controller, Neural Engine, and Thunderbolt 5 capabilities […]
It brings together two third-generation 3-nanometer dies with high bandwidth and low latency using advanced packaging.
Apple highlights four of the latest technologies embedded into the chips.
- A faster 16-core Neural Engine with a higher bandwidth connection to memory to accelerate on-device AI features and Apple Intelligence.
- Apple’s latest Media Engine with support for hardware-accelerated H.264 and HEVC, AV1 decode, and ProRes encode and decode engines.
- Support for Memory Integrity Enforcement — an industry-first, always-on memory safety protection that does not compromise device performance.
- Thunderbolt 5 ports, each supported by its own custom-designed controller directly on the chip — making this the industry’s most capable implementation of Thunderbolt 5.
Apple has also renamed the high-performance cores as “super cores.”
M5 Pro and M5 Max feature a new 18-core CPU architecture. It includes six of the highest-performing core design, now called super cores, that are the world’s fastest CPU core. Alongside these cores are 12 all-new performance cores, optimized for power-efficient, multithreaded workloads. Collectively, the CPU significantly boosts performance by up to 30 percent for pro workloads.
The GPU scales up the next-generation architecture introduced in M5 to an up-to-40-core GPU. With a Neural Accelerator in each GPU core and higher unified memory bandwidth, M5 Pro and M5 Max are over 4x the peak GPU compute for AI compared to the previous generation. The GPU substantially increases graphics capabilities — now up to 35 percent for apps using ray tracing than M4 Pro and M4 Max — enhancing advanced visual effects and 3D rendering.
Apple says this approach results in an “unparalleled combination of performance, efficiency, and on-device AI capabilities.”
“M5 Pro and M5 Max are a monumental leap forward for Apple silicon, leveraging our new Fusion Architecture to scale the capabilities of Apple silicon while preserving its core tenets of performance, power efficiency, and unified memory architecture,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Technologies.
“Both chips underscore our relentless pace of innovation, integrating the world’s fastest CPU cores, a next-generation GPU with Neural Accelerators, a faster Neural Engine, and high-bandwidth, high-capacity memory — resulting in an unparalleled combination of performance, efficiency, and incredible on-device AI capabilities for MacBook Pro.”
Apple says the M5 Pro chip is aimed at people like data modelers, sound designers, and STEM students, while the M5 Max is pitched toward 3D animators, app developers and AI researchers.
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